dArt International Magazine

by Robert Curcio

(Republication of a dArt magazine Winter 2017/18 article.)

Paul Gurtler and I met about eight years ago or so, through Steve Rockwell, the intrepid leader of this publication and artist in his collection. At a little get together last May at Paul’s Manhattan place, the three of us conspired to put in motion this profile.

As a young man in the early 70’s, the company that Paul worked for sent him to Tokyo for a few years which is where the whole art collecting bug caught him; first as a maker and collector of ceramics, then as a collector of prints. He still has a piece or two from back then, but the majority of pieces he gave away to admirers of the works. By the mid-70’s Paul’s company moved him to NYC where he was at the center of the art world with all the art celebs, legendary gallery owners, flashy headline making auctions, glitzy openings, the attitudes, big money and the art itself – it just wasn’t for Paul. It wasn’t until some years later when Paul went to Toronto on business that he found the art, artists and community that he was looking for and began to collect in earnest.

When he began going to Toronto Paul regularly visited the Fran Hill Gallery and Moore Gallery, where at both these and other galleries, the owners and staff were welcoming and engaged with all the people coming into their gallery. This was much different from Paul’s experience with NYC galleries where a visitor first had to pass scrutiny before anyone would utter a word. (This has changed a bit in NYC now, just a bit.) Something that was unexpected was that artists and galleries were all referring him to each other; artists to go see another artist’s studio or exhibit, or a gallery suggesting he might like the work of an artist at another gallery. (Happens a bit in NYC, again, just a bit) He was so impressed with everyone’s generosity that at one gallery he purchased three large paintings by Robert Chandler and YM Whelan, regardless of the fact that he had a typical small NYC apartment with no place to hang them.

As we were going back-n-forth talking about the paintings, which artists he doesn’t like and an out of nowhere switch about his very different collection in Bermuda, I felt there was more to investigate as to where his real interest in art and to collect came from. Now Paul is a rather private person, so I was very surprised during our interview when, without insistent prodding from me, he just opened up and started talking about his father. How his father would come home with various antiques, classical and traditional paintings and other objects d’art, that he bought to quickly turn around to sell them. In today’s parlance Paul’s father would have been called a “picker,” someone who scouts out the local auctions and house sales for hidden gems to sell to the bigger auction houses, antique stores, designers and other clients.

Those pieces changed almost weekly, since these were pieces meant to be sold for a profit and not to collect and hold onto just for the sake of admiring the art. However, during the pieces’ stay in the home Paul’s father would share with him thoughts on why he bought the pieces. Paul said he talked about craftsmanship, technique, quality, and beauty, ideals that an individual artist worked at to create something unique and special. Ideals that only in recent years’ people have started to discuss and consider within modern and contemporary art. The time spent with his father provided Paul with a true appreciation and understanding for art, and for the artist. For Paul, it is not only about the art and being able to appreciate it, it’s also about his connection to the life and memory of his father. As he was thinking back to his past from his current vantage point as a collector, he stopped just briefly then continued with a knowing look saying that his collection, how he thinks about art, and his relationships with artists, would make his father pleased.

The majority of Paul’s collection is primarily Canadian art, more precisely 40 out of 50 paintings are by Toronto based artists and except for a few pieces it is almost exclusively painting. Artists include: Robert Bachalo, Robert Chandler, Tim Deverell, Ric Evans, Steve Driscoll, Ric Evans, Marianne Fowler, Steve Rockwell, and YM Whelan. In a basic overall description, the collection is comprised of abstract pieces with an inclination towards the geometric and minimal with a richness and vitality of color. While we were talking, I realized that after numerous visits, just about each piece has a certain quality of texture to it. Whether it is Nathan Slate Joseph’s (one of the few non-Canadians) incredibly textured metal painting/sculpture pieces or Whelan’s abstract geometric paintings where the slightly raised brush strokes are visible, there is always texture.

Paul does not buy for investment and has no interest in buying at auction because that is just a business transaction. He has no buyer’s remorse, as he called it when someone buys a piece on a whim only to resell it because they just don’t like the piece. The big art names of Basquiat, Hirst, Koons, Warhol, and the like, he lumps all together as not exactly artists, one he specifically called a fraud, since there are squads of assistants that make their art and there is more concern with market value than with real art ideals. He understands “flipping” as another business transaction, but not something a real collector or appreciator of art would ever do.

There’s an old saying that there are two types of collectors: one who buys with their eyes meaning it’s about the art and the other buys with their ears meaning they hear the buzz, who else is buying, the sound of money. Paul definitely collects with his eyes, and I would say his heart. Collecting gives him great pleasure and satisfaction, but even more it’s the experiences and interactions with the people involved that matter as much as the art. Having that interaction with the art, artist, gallery and others, seeing the development over the years and of their friendships, that is what truly matters. The piece of art itself becomes a snapshot that holds Paul’s memories over the years; visiting the gallery or studio, talking with everyone over dinner, learning why the artist made that piece that way, new pieces being made, all building new art memories upon his earliest memories.

It’s also about living with the art, many of the pieces in his collection have been with him for 15 years or more. Pieces do not go to storage or circulate on and off the wall, but in full view for all to see and a chance for him to share the art and his memories. After traveling on business for weeks or lifting his head out of spreadsheets, Paul looks at the pieces and thinks about those good times. As Paul says of his collection, giving them a human presence, they are all “good room-mates.”

Christopher Chambers Interviews Collector Steve Shane

(Republication of a dArt magazine Summer 2003 article.)

Every Saturday art lover Steve Shane visits 30 galleries in New York City, where he resides. Sundays he goes to museums, or galleries outside Manhattan, All of his vacations are scheduled around art events. He has rarely missed a major international art fair in twenty years, He regularly sends out his art emails of his picks to over 500 fellow enthusiasts. Shane prefers to term himself an “art lover,” rather than a collector, stating that his “collection is only a little side effect of my passion,” although he has amassed a collection of over 500 works of contemporary art to date. Shane has never sold any of his collection, which will one day be bequeathed to different museums.

Christopher Chambers: Would you say that collecting is your hobby? 

Steve Shane: Hobby is too little of a word. It’s why I live. It’s why I go to work. Its why I go to work. It’s why I get up; it’s my life. The art galleries, the art dealers, my art collection; talking about it, reading about I, reading art magazines…

CC: What inspires you to collect art? 

SS: I’m looking for a buzz. I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t do any drugs. I don’t smoke. It’s my buzz in life. And I’m also looking for myself. My collection helps me understand who and what I am. I don’t just let anyone into my collection – it really exposes who I am, it’s like lying on a psychiatrist’s couch. My collection is really personal. I think you come here and you might be able to figure out some aspects of my personality, and my identity, history. 

CC: What is art for? 

SS: I think it has different purposes for different people. For me it’s for pleasure. I think it’s to learn. I think one of the things it’s for is: a talented artist was born in this world to help the viewers see what they didn’t see before viewing the art. For example, the Beckers. They taught me how to look. I don’t think I would have ever noticed urban landscapes if it wasn’t for them, I would have never seen a water tower. Or, Marcel Duchamp has taught me to look at things I see in life as a sculpture. 

CC: Why do you think people make art? 

SS: I don’t think they have a choice. They were born to do it. Hopefully a good artist does it because he has something to say about art history, our society, about politics…

CC: What is art? 

SS: Art is anything that an artist makes, that an artist has dedicated his life life to do. Anything that is shown in an art museum or an art gallery. I think it’s creativity. 

CC: Have you ever seen magic? 

SS: Yes. It’s all magical for me. My first experience of an artist. There’s an artist I’ve been crazy about for a while, I think it’s a magical experience for me to see it: Neo Rauch. It’s always a magical experience for me. It takes me to a different place. I think Kim Keever’s magical. One of the things in my collection is a sense of place. I have this thing; I work in New Jersey, I’m a doctor, and then I go through the Lincoln Tunnel and I’m in the art world, New York. I’m from Detroit. Kim Keever takes me to another place. I think that’s magical. It’s like a high. Art can be an escape in that sense. 

CC: Do you think a work of art should transcend the picture plane? 

SS: I think it’s more religious than spiritual. I don’t go to synagogue or church. It’s like a religious calling or religious experience for me. It’s more exciting for me when I first see an artwork as opposed to possessing it. I end up looking like a squirrel, maybe, because I have a big collection, but the biggest thing for me is to see it, to discover it, than to possess it. I like to be a part of the whole situation. After I acquire a piece I like to meet the artist. I also like to consider myself an artist as curator. The work takes on a different meaning in the context of my collection. Because it’s a curated show in my home. 

CC: Is there any particular overriding theme or direction to your collecting? 

SS: Within my collection there is a strong sense of place – a longing or an imagining to be in another place – a different, better place. Other themes recurring throughout my collection include, art about art – art that alludes to or builds on the history of art. I am also attracted to art that exhibits a sense of humor; art that uses wit or irony to comment on historical art movements, artists and the creative process. Another key theme is the marriage of seduction and repulsion. In its physical presence and its emotional content, the work in my collection both attracts and repels the viewer. Contemporary art, as art throughout history, expresses the horror and the joy of the human condition. The artwork in my collection reflects this condition with assuredness, strength, and sincerity. Other themes that have subconsciously entered are: “painting without paint,” “photography of invention,” the element of the “fake,” “the dysfunctional family,” “celebrity,” and a sense of the theatrical. 

CC: Did you collect other things as a child?

SS: It was elephants. Elephants from all over the world made from all different materials. 

CC: Do you collect artists in depth, or do you try to go across the board? 

SS: I used to only want to have one of each, but then, I was enamored by Cindy Sherman early on – in the early eighties – and I think I have twenty Shermans. Elliot Green, I have four or five and then Nina Bovasso… it’s mostly one ofs, but there are certain artists I have multiple pieces by.  Condo (2), Dunham (2), Dzama (4), Glantzman (2), Deb Cass (2), Jonathan Tucker (9), Lasker (2), Simmons (6), Elizabeth Olbert (2), John Waters (2) John Waters is hilarious, Angela Wyman (4), Wojnarowicz (2). 

CC: What is your favourite work in your collection? 

SS: The last piece I acquired always. 

CC: Do you see any particular direction that you think art is heading in? 

SS: Yes, I think it’s heading way toward video. I went to the last Documenta. I don’t have the patience to watch a video for forty-five minutes. In my opinion a good video is if you can jump in at any point and watch it for three minutes. That’s Pipolitti Rist. I end up being mesmerized, maybe that’s the magic you were talking about. Actually, I stay for a long time with her’s. But, I don’t think it’s going to be the end of painting, that’s for sure. I am an individual. I go all over the place and and figure it out for myself. I search for what I think is a good painting, not what’s going on now. That’s looking at art with your ears. I think it’s amazing what some dealers don’t know about art history.